Sports are meant to be competitive by nature. However, competition between different sports is something we rarely see, especially in a public forum. A comment from LeBron James about NBA owner Christmas Day seems to have opened this can of worms.

Following James’ comments, former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL quarterback Cam Newton criticized Major League Baseball and its waning popularity.

The death of baseball? Cam Newton seems to think so

When Newton appeared on the 4th and 1 podcast, he had some controversial comments to make – none more so than on the subject of baseball. He called it a “dying sport” and believed MLB would be left behind in just two decades.

“Baseball is a, I hate to say it, a dying sport. I think baseball will be overtaken by the WNBA in 20 years.”

With less than a week left in 2024, I think we have a buzzer for the worst take of the year. pic.twitter.com/xcEsop61if

— Jared Carrabis (@Jared_Carrabis) December 26, 2024

The WNBA, for its part, has enjoyed a surge in popularity recently. Thanks to an exciting college scene and a popular 2024 rookie class led by Caitlin Clark, the league enjoyed record-breaking attendance and ratings.

However, the gap between the viewership of the WNBA and the MLB is incredibly large. While the basketball league averaged just over 1.5 million viewers for the Finals, the World Series regularly had more than 7 million viewers.

And when it comes to attendance, the numbers don’t even come close. While the WNBA had record numbers with an average of almost 10,000 spectators in the arena, baseball games averaged over 30,000 spectators.

At the same time, the finances of the two leagues are miles apart. While the WNBA struggles to find adequate salaries for its players, baseball regularly receives contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

While the idea is noble, imagining a scenario in which baseball is taken over by the WNBA seems like a daunting task. Finally, the league is starting to see an upward trend as it continues to make rule changes to improve the product for its viewers.

While the WNBA has a lot of goodwill on its side, and rightly so, scaling the heights of the MLB will be difficult in the near future. Even 20 years later, Newton’s predictions seem unlikely to come true.